When PLDT launched their latest gimmick, “the first and only free local call service from all over the country,” I noticed that most of the questions were coming from the table occupied by “senior” journalists. I guessed that was because the younger ones are so at home with whatever is new in technology that they know everything already and have no need for clarification, amplification,
or examples (my favorite).

“Call All!” prompted emcee and endorser Edu Manzano. But when I told the Smart guys that I wanted to call Edu, they ignored me while Edu pretended he did not hear me. Could I call Hayden, then? Silence.

As one of the last holdouts against text messaging in my group, I am also what the techies would call a noob. That’s not a typographical error, it’s a word, a new word. If you’re so smart and hi-tech, you should know what it means. Noobs like me have no urgent desire for more than one phone at home and one in the handbag, but with this new service, the phone company with the most cellphone subscribers and users claims it is filling a need, “based on customer insight.”

For P250 on top of the monthly residential landline bill, subscribers can “call home from anywhere in the country” – that is, if they own a PLP (PLDT Landline Plus) with its own SIM card and if the number being called is “in the same local calling area.”

For example, a Manila subscriber can take his PLP 2nd Line SIM to Cebu and call his friends in Manila for free (it’s a Manila line calling Manila). At no extra charge, a woman in Baguio can check on her kids vacationing in Boracay as long as the children are using their PLP 2nd line (it’s a Baguio-to-Baguio linkup).

According to Mon Isberto, of the 67 million cellphones in use all over the islands, 10 to 15 percent are in the hands of people who own more than one mobile line. Chavit Singson, for one, carries
five cp’s at a time. At the other extreme, and unless my information is outdated, Tony Gatmaitan refuses to own or carry a cp. I’m happily in the middle of the muddle, if only because I can’t imagine what my two ears, two hands and one brain would have to do dealing with more than one phone and not drop it, lose it or under-use it.